Nina L. Collins

New Testament chronology

This work includes subjects of study relevant to both Christian and Jewish scholarship. It begins with the present Western calendar and steps back to the opening of Genesis. The calendar system is then followed forward to the Bar Kokhba revolt in the second century CE and the later establishment of the modern Jewish calendar. Detailed studies are presented on Herodian chronology and Pontius Pilate and the dating of the book of Acts completes the work.

Did the Israelites Leave Egypt with Unleavened Bread? The Historical Significance of the Israelites' Food

The contradictory details in the Pentateuch concerning the food of Israelites leaving Egypt can be explained by a late redaction of Exodus 12:39. This has significant implications for the timing of the pre-Pentateuchal Passover ritual, the pre-Pentateuchal Festival of Unleavened Bread, and their temporal relationship to the Exodus, especially when considered with the evidence preserved at Numbers 33:3. It is most unlikely that the Israelites left with unleavened bread and unlikely that the Exodus took place on the night of the Passover meal. It is also unlikely that the Passover was originally connected with the seven-day Festival of Unleavened Bread, but was a completely separate religious event.

Healing and Saving Life from Starvation, Mark 2:23–26, 28, Luke 6:1–5 & Matthew 12:1–8 The Sources and Historicity of the Galilean Event

This article summarizes a lengthy discussion on the story of Jesus, his disciples and the Pharisees who met together in the Galilean fields (Collins 2014: 27–107), exploring its historicity, rather than its source. The discussion will show that that the climax of the story, when Jesus replied to the Pharisees, is almost certainly based on an ingenious Greek translation of an existing Jewish argument, originally composed in Hebrew. This Hebrew argument justified “work” that was performed on the Sabbath in order to save life from starvation, although Sabbath “work” was (and is) otherwise forbidden by Jewish law. (According to Jewish law, any act of “healing” and/or “saving life” is regarded as “work.”) The subsequent dramatization of the argument, probably by Mark, resulted in the present fictional tale. This understanding of the story shows that the Galilean incident is not “a controversy tale” in which the historical Jesus was criticized, even vilified, by the Pharisees, as is often alleged. Instead, the author of the tale aimed to promote Jesus as the arbiter of Sabbath law, and to elevate him as an equal of the Pharisees when discussing Jewish law.

The various fathers of Ptolemy I

Reports from antiquity — two factual and another based on myth — claim that Ptolemy I was a son of the Macedonian king Philip II. If so, Ptolemy was a half-brother of Alexander the Great. Scholars suppose that this rumour was promoted by Ptolemy I. But this cannot be confirmed. It seems rather that Arsinoe, the mother of Ptolemy I, was a concubine at the court of Philip II and that a rumour existed that Ptolemy I was illegitimately born. This rumour developed in two separate ways. In Macedon, probably in the late 280s BCE, it was claimed that the father of Ptolemy was Philip II. The story may have been inspired by Ptolemy Keraunos in the course of his quest for the Macedonian throne. In Egypt, however, in spite of an apparent reluctance of Ptolemy I to link Lagos with his name, it was officially proclaimed in the reign of his son (Ptolemy II) that Lagos was the father of Ptolemy I. It is possible thereby that Ptolemy II removed the stigma of bastardy from the first Ptolemaic king.